Monday, November 5, 2007

Early on, like most newborns, Sophie slept ALL the time and we thought, "how lucky are we!" We thought we had won the baby jackpot and had the one that slept through the night from the beginning and didn't cry much. We thought we'd be those rare lucky parents who when asked about their baby's sleep habits, they could say that she was just a dream, absolutely no trouble at all.

Well, the tide turned pretty quickly. And then she only slept when we weren't sleeping and cried A LOT and we thought "well, crap, maybe we're not so lucky." And then I thought that this was my payback for being such a difficult baby myself. My mom has often said that I did nothing but cry for the first year.

And to top it off, she was tongue-tied, making nursing an absolute nightmare. Tongue-tie is when the frenulum, that thin piece of sinew or whatever that connects the tongue to the bottom of the mouth, is too short. This causes the baby to be unable to push their tongue out far enough to latch on right, which means they use their gums. Ouch. Luckily a visit to a lactation consultant who correctly identified the problem and then off to an Ear/Nose/Throat doctor for a quick laser cut and she was good as new.

As with all things, these troubles passed and she began sleeping a little more consistently and nursing got better. Finally, things were starting to look up and we could settle into a regular life. Neil went back to work after 2 1/2 weeks home with me. Now begins the scariest of scary: that uncharted territory known as my life as a stay-at-home mom.